Category: Fiction

Book Review: The Quiet Invasion by Zettel (4 Stars)

Quiet Invasion by ZettelThe Quiet Invasion by Sarah Zettel

4 out of 5 stars

Read in August 2010

Great first contact story. Zettel’s vision of Earth’s political evolution and expansion to several colonies on nearby planets and satellites painted a grim future for civil rights and personal liberties. My only small quibble with the aliens stems from their mental motivations, which seemed similar to human beings. Besides that, I couldn’t put the book down, especially that last hundred pages or so (which I need to re-read to make sure I didn’t inadvertently skip something in my mad dash to the finish).

Update May 2013:  I met Sarah recently at a convention book fair and she assured me the ebook for Quiet Invasion would be released very soon.  Her Isvalta series was recently released to ebook as well.

Author Two-for-One on May the Fourth

Strange first week of May so far for 2013.

My apple trees started blooming on May Day:

May Day

Terry and I celebrated (as best we can on a Wednesday) our 27th anniversary.  He bought me a bouquet and card and a gift (which I won’t share here but greatly appreciate):

Anniversary Bouquet

The very next day, May the 2nd, it snowed.  For real.  Since I had to drive through it, I didn’t take any photographs, and most of it melted as it hit the ground.   Visiting authorial dignatory John Scalzi commented on the situation via Twitter:

My own photo taken after dropping off my Hallmark riders at 7:10 a.m. on Thursday morning, May 3rd, facing north with the Sheraton (fka the Hyatt) where Mr. Scalzi was probably still snoozing:

North from Crown Center

Saturday morning, May the 4th (officially or unofficially international Star Wars day), I put $20 worth of gas in the Bonneville.

Why is this significant? I wanted to meet a couple of authors signing during a book fair at the RT Booklovers Convention hosted by the Sheraton at Crown Center.

Because I drive a vanpool, Terry and I don’t fill up our personal vehicle but once a month or every six weeks. From long experience, I know I need a minimum of three gallons of gas to make a trip to Kansas City and back home. Three gallons of premium (required for both of our Pontiacs) is close to $4 a gallon (I think I paid $3.699 at Quick Trip yesterday), so I rounded up to the nearest $10 increment. I also grabbed $20 cash from an ATM so I’d be able to buy the book fair pass ($5 at the door). Parking at Crown Center is free on the weekends (Huzzah!).

So, for $10 in gas, $5 at the door and free parking, I got to meet two of my favorite authors:

RT13 Book Fair Excursion
John Scalzi, author of The Human Division, recently released in hardcover and earlier released as a serialized ebook.  Shown here signing the only print edition of one of his books that I own, Zoe’s Tale. Oddly, it’s also the only one I have yet to read.  I own all the rest of his books, but in ebook format, and didn’t think having my Nook Color or new Samsung Note II signed would be a good idea.

RT13 Book Fair Excursion

Sarah Zettel, author of The Quiet Invasion, one of the best first contact stories I’ve ever read, and the Isvalta series.

I almost didn’t find Sarah in this chaos:

RT13 Book Fair Excursion

Authors were spread out across a dozen rows of tables in alphabetical order, except for headline authors like Scalzi, who were segregated along a back wall (or a quiet corner in Scalzi’s case):

RT13 Book Fair Excursion

Sarah should have been on the last row near Scalzi, but only one other “Z” author sat there and it wasn’t Zettel. I despaired of traipsing slowly through all the rows, mostly because all these other authors really didn’t have anything I would go out of my way to read. The entire convention was sponsored by “Romantic Times,” a genre I normally avoid like the proverbial plague. I’ll tolerate a well written romance, if it’s a subplot in a fantasy or science fiction novel. Otherwise, I’ll pass.

I did find Sarah, in a special section devoted to young adult readers. Her latest book, Dust Girl, is apparently in that subgenre.

I returned home, arriving back before noon.  Terry and I topped off our anniversary celebration by grabbing the last two available VIP seats for the 7:30 p.m. showing of Iron Man 3 at the Legends 14 Theaters.  We liked it and we sat through the credits to watch the Easter egg final scene.  Cute.  The only thing missing was Black Sabbath or even some AC/DC in the sound track.  I think it would have been a nice touch over the final montage before the credits rolled.

Book Review: His Majesty’s Dragon by Novik (4 Stars)

His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik

4 out of 5 stars

Read in November 2008

Why do I love tales of adventure on the high seas? Is it because I’ve always lived in Kansas, thousands of miles away from the ocean? And the icing on the cake? Dragons!

We meet Captain Laurence as he’s defeated and captured the French ship Amerité. Within its hold is a peculiar and very precious cargo, which Captain Laurence transfers immediately to his ship, the HMS Reliant. The Reliant‘s surgeon confirms the cargo is a dragon egg. Due to the recent stormy weather, which blew the French ship off course, the egg is hardened to the point of imminent hatching. Captain Laurence gathers his officers to discuss their options. The dragon egg is too great a prize for England to let the hatchling turn feral, so Laurence has his officers draw straws to present one of them as a handler for the dragon. However, the dragon, once hatched, has other ideas and refuses everyone … except Laurence. Laurence names the dragon Temeraire and their adventure begins.

Laurence immediately resigns or transfers his commission as Captain to his second lieutenant and spends the time on the return voyage to England in caring for Temeraire. Once they arrive in England, Laurence and Temeraire are transferred from the Royal Navy to the Royal Air Corps to being their training immediately. England may dominate the oceans with her Navy, the Napoleon waits across the channel with 100,000 men and his own dragons, waiting for the perfect opportunity to invade.

Naomi Novik does a fantastic job of drawing me into the early 19th century. She weaves the existence of dragons and their military applications into our history flawlessly and believably. I am looking forward to reading more of this series.

Friday (May 3, 2013) Steal:  Ebook edition on sale for 99 cents!

Book Review: Furies of Calderon by Butcher (3.5 Stars)

Furies of Calderon by Jim Butcher

3.5 out of 5 stars

Read in July 2010

The first half and the end (last chapter or two) reminded me strongly of young adult fantasy fiction. Only the core of the book dealt with mature adult choices and consequences. World building sacrificed to action for the most part. No one character grabbed me. Of the cast, Tavi and Isana rose to the top.

The burgeoning romance between Bernard and Amara stretched my belief. Why would a widower, a decade celibate, pine over a young teenager? Otherwise, Bernard proved to be a steady, upstanding, heroic figure for the plot.

I also became annoyed by video game-like healing and non-death. Basically, if you didn’t lose your head (think Highlander), you could survive even the most fatal of wounds, thanks to the water fury crafters. Without a real death threat for any of the main characters, I quickly became jaundiced to their fates.

Tavi, being fury-less, journeyed the farthest as a character, having the most obstacles to overcome by his wits, skills and strengths alone.

With respect to the Aleran Empire, which bears a shocking resemblance to the Roman Empire even down to the use of Latin names and words, I did not feel the political corruption at a visceral level, like I did in Gardens of the Moon or A Game of Thrones. The epic quality for this fantasy series didn’t manifest for me in this first volume of Codex Alera.

The vilest elements involved the backwater steadholder secretly torturing slaves right under the noses of his neighbors. I’m thankful Butcher restrained himself from showing or telling overmuch about Kord’s obsessions, leaving my imagination to fill in the horrifying blanks.

I may read the next volume, or not, depending on if it falls into my hands easily enough (like, say, through a swap or a mooch). I’m not compelled to follow Tavi through school at the Academy (yet another YA aspect I’m not fond of). The fate of another empire hinging on the seemingly untalented (magically speaking) young ‘chosen one’ lost it’s shine a couple of decades ago with Eddings’ Garion.

Book Review: The Diamond Throne by Eddings (5 Stars)

Diamond ThroneThe Diamond Throne by David Eddings

5 out of 5 stars

Originally read in 1990 (but re-read many times since)

Besides Terry Brooks, David Eddings is the only fantasy genre author I can get my husband to read. Who could resist dialogue dripping with sarcasm and wit and satisfying action adventures? I read Eddings when I want a respite from deep-thinking convoluted epic fantasy. Eddings makes me laugh and always provides a rollicking romp through strange lands on a heroic quest to save the world. All very predictable but also very enjoyable.

The Diamond Throne has one of my all-time favorite characters – Sparhawk. He’s a curmudgeon of a knight who should have retired years ago but is too stubborn to stop. And no one else has the heart or gumption to tell him otherwise.

May 1, 2013 Update:  I decided to relocate this review to my blog from GoodReads on this specific day because today, May Day, is my husband and I’s anniversary.  This book was published and I read it at least two times before we celebrated our fifth year together.  Twenty-seven years later, this series is still just about the only fantasy fiction I could get Terry to read.  Sadly neither of us will ever read anything new from David Eddings again, since four years ago this June, he passed away.

Book Review: The Book Thief by Zusak (5 Stars)

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

5 out of 5 stars

Read in April 2009

This book is outstanding and well deserving of its many awards. Even better, it is classified as young adult fiction. And I hope one day, soon, The Book Thief is read and taught in classrooms around the world … because everyone should read this book.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to grow up and come of age in Nazi Germany during World War II? Not as a Jew, but as a German citizen – a foster child recently bereft of her younger brother.

Lisa’s coping mechanism is to steal books. In fact, her first theft occurs at her brother’s funeral. One of the cemetery workers drops The Gravediggers Handbook in the snow and Lisa snatches it up. Later, her new “papa” teachers her to read using this stolen book.

Her most daring theft occurred at a Hitler Youth Rally book burning. She rescued The Shoulder Shrug right out of the bonfire!

The story is narrated by Death who is the ultimate book thief. He stole Lisa’s autobiography when he collected her soul many years after the war. He has read her story so many times, the pages are crumbling in his hands. He admits at the end of the story that he no longer needs the pages because he’s memorized it from re-reading it so often.

I hope you will follow in Death’s footsteps and steal this book and remember it always.

Book Review: The Gods Hate Kansas by Millard (4 Stars)

GodsHateKansascoverThe Gods Hate Kansas by Joseph Millard

4 out of 5 stars

Read in June 2008

Even though this story was at times corny and a bit dated scientifically, it was a fast and enjoyable read. Only took me a couple of hours, but it was time well spent.  In fact it took me much longer to acquire a copy to read, through interlibrary loan.

Originally published in 1941 (and I didn’t read the original version that appeared in a science fiction magazine), this alien body-snatching story had a few new twists to what some may consider old and cliche.

Now I’ll have to add the 1967 move They Came From Beyond Space to my Netflix queue to see how well this novel was adapted.

Besides, I felt compelled to read a book about my home state — Kansas!

Ad astra per aspera!

Latin for “To the stars through difficulty!”

Book Review (Anthology): I, Robot by Asimov (4 Stars)

I, Robot by Isaac Asimov

4 out of 5 stars

Last read in March 2009

I re-read this classic science fiction anthology for the Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Club at GoodReads (in March 2009). Here is a link to the discussion on the Three Laws and another for readers to post their favorites.  My favorite stories include “Runaround,” “Liar!” and “Escape!”

Below you will find my mini-reviews of each story (Spoiler Warning)

March 29, 2009: Re-reading this for a book club at GoodReads. I’m slightly annoyed with the library because they held the wrong version of this book for me. It’s the shorter version re-released at the same time as the Will Smith movie.

On “Robbie” . . . A demonstration of the First Law – Robbie, a non-speaking robot assigned as a nursemaid to a six-year old girl. The mother cracks under the mounting social pressure against robots and convinces her husband to have Robbie removed. The girl is devastated and doesn’t give up looking for Robbie until she finds him on a tour of a US Robots facility.  The family dynamics are very dated (they scream 1950s) but otherwise it’s a good story, especially the relationship between Robbie and the girl.

On “Runaround” . . . It’s always a good idea to be precise when giving instructions to a robot. This story demonstrates the irratic and irrational robotic behavior that can occur when the Second Rule and the Third Rule are in balance. It took two “brilliant” scientists several hours to reason out that only the First Law would break the cycle.

On “Reason” . . . Reason reunited us with the same two “brilliant” scientists from the Mercury mining mission in Runaround. This time Powell and Donovan are running a Solar Station #5 that beams solar energy to Earth. They have just assembled a new robot, designation QT-1, “Cutie” colloquially. The hope for this new model series was to replace the executive level humans on the Solar Stations (i.e. Powell and Donovan) so that humans were only required to visit the stations to make repairs. Cutie waxes philosophical and culminates his own theology, evangelizing the other robots. Donovan and Powell struggle to break the obsession but eventually come to terms with it’s potential.  This story reminded me of Cylons but without the darkness, danger and threat to humans.

On “Catch That Rabbit” . . . This story was entertaining but a bit weak on the “what if” premise. Donavon and Powell are back at a mining facility, testing a new model of robot – a multirobot – a master robot with six subsidiaries. As long as the robot(s) are watched by the humans (and the robots know they are being watched), they perform flawlessly. But when they are unwatched, they appear to go bonkers, losing track of time, unresponsive to radio hails, etc. Powell and Donavon eventually “catch the rabbit” i.e. the trigger point for the breakdown, but it just doesn’t have the impact of the other two stories.

On “Liar!” . . . I like this story because it is very emotionally charged and for the “what if” of what the definition of harm is.

On “Little Lost Robot” . . . This story changed the rules, literally. The “what if” deals with a modified First Law that contained only the positive aspect of the Law – “No robot may harm a human being” – leaving off the latter portion – “or through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.” The scientists involved in the Hyperatomic Drive project felt they needed robots with a modified First Law because they were constantly putting themselves in harm’s way, which forced the non-modified robots to “save” them. Dr. Calvin eventually convinced them of consequences.

On “Escape!” . . . This was another test of the First Law. Dr. Calvin also inadvertently made matters worse by trying to help the engineers solve the interstellar jump problem but also protect The Brain from destroying itself with a dilemma.

On “Evidence” . . . This story dealt with the “what if” a robot looked and acted exactly like a human. Reminded me of the “skin job” references in Battlestar Galactica (reimagined) but with less violence. A politician is accused of being a robot and refuses to submit to testing. The argument is raised that if a human follows the Golden Rule, he basically also follows the Three Laws. So without physical examination to prove otherwise, a good decent human could not be disproven a robot.

On “The Evitable Conflict” . . . This story finally gets to the crux of the matter in the evolution of the Three Laws. It’s an expansion of the First Law by the Machines (large super brain robots that shepherd the four Regions of Earth) as articulated by Dr. Susan Calvin: “A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.” It is commonly referred to as the Zeroth Law of Robotics.

Book Review: Good Omens by Pratchett and Gaiman (4 Stars)

Good Omens
by
Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

4 out of 5 stars

Read in May 2009

This was a hoot!

I thoroughly enjoyed this hilarious satire of Armageddon. The AntiChrist as an eleven-year-old boy with a Hellhound masquerading as a rat terrier mongrel. The Four Bikers of the Apocalypse easy riding to the End of the World. And it all started with the Serpent and the guardian Angel from the Garden of Eden. To top it all off, a 17th century witch named Agnes Nutter accurately predicted everything.

April 27, 2013 Alert:  Good Omens is today’s Nook Daily deal at Barnes & Noble!  Snatch your copy for just under two bucks today!